Hashtag True Detective Season Two
If you saw True Detective then you’re probably one of two people: You thought it was an excellent crime drama featuring lush cinematography and anchored by two fantastic performances from Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Or you thought it was a nice looking drama featuring psycho-babble dialogue that was way too far up it’s own arse. Both valid opinions but neither party can deny the impact True Detective had upon the TV landscape. From nabbing two big Hollywood stars (of course McConaughey won the Oscar around the time the show wrapped up) to THAT tracking shot and the fan theories that circulated the internet regarding the Yellow King and Carcosa. The internet also seemed to implode with parody videos of Rustin Cohle’s present day look and interview room shenanigans involving beer cans and directionless dialogue.
HBO obviously commissioned a second season of the show featuring new characters, a new story and new locale which then prompted the popularity of the Twitter hash tag, #truedetectiveseason2. With people offering serious and comedic suggestions for the cast of Season two (I personally chose Louis CK and his two daughters from Louie).
Slowly over time, information regarding season two is trickling in. What we know so far, based on writer Nic Pizzolatto, is that the show will be moving from Louisiana to California and will explore the “psycho sphere ambience” of the state. No word on casting yet but various actors have been linked including Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, and Jessica Chastain. The latest (and so far strongest) rumour to hit the mill is Colin Farrell taking a lead role alongside Taylor Kitsch.
Pardon me but that sounds…well that sounds a bit boring. This is not a knock against Farrell or Kitsch (the Friday Night Lights fan in me will never say a bad word against Riggins!). Both of them are fine actors and should they do take the lead roles of the second season, I’m sure they’ll do a great job. But casting two male actors just seems like treading on turf already explored.
In an anthology show like True Detective where the writer is given the chance to shake things up every season, it seems odd that the writer would go the route of choosing two male leads after having done so in the first season. Of course for all we know those two male leads could be drastically different from Rustin Cohle and Marty Hart in characterisation.
But why not a male/female dynamic? Or a female/female dynamic? It’s not like there’s a major overflowing of female detectives on television. There’s plenty of ground to explore. In fact speaking of female detectives/law enforcement in general, another anthology series to debut this year was the wonderful Fargo.
Fargo featured the character of Molly Solverson, a tenacious detective who pursues justice through to end despite the conflict from other criminals and her own peers. What could have been a character that came off as a horrible Marge Gunderson clone, turned out to be a well rounded, likeable character played by Alison Tollman who stole the show from the likes of Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton in my opinion.
No matter who is cast in True Detective Season two, I’m sure to be hyped up and giddy to watch it either way. But if something like that Jessica Chastain rumour was to come true, I would be even more hyped. Anybody who watched Zero Dark Thirty would probably agree she has the calibre to pull it off. But there are equally many other actresses out there who I would love to see lead the cast of True Detective. I hope we don’t have to wait till #truedetectiveseason3 to see that though
